THE SCIENCE TO STOP AND REVERSE AGING: Part 5

Top news of the day.

• U.S. midterm elections on November 3, six days away.  Hope they are held and results accepted.

• 
  As I mentioned yesterday, Israel is on a path to select two leaders, prime minister and president.  Could be named today, or next week, or by the end of the year.  If delayed that long, there will a second set of Knesset elections.  In the meantime, Benjamin Netanyahu carries on as Prime Minister. 
• The Federal Reserve voted 10-2 to hold its benchmark interest rate within the current 3.75%-4.00% range, acknowledging that inflation remains elevated.  If there was any added hint, it is that further rate hikes will still be coming on top of this high level today.  As you know, Kevin Wharsh replaced Jerome Powell as chairman in May.

In a way, the roots of this series about the science to stop and reverse began with a posting on 8May2016, more than a decade ago, about how life began.  If you click on that article, at the very end I congratulated myself for finally reaching a million visitors to this site.  It took eight years to get to that number.  Yesterday, the 13 millionth person viewed this blog site.  A lot more readers/day now compared to the first 8 years.

About this matter of science stopping and reversing aging:

• Eight years ago:  30March2018  THE FIRST REAL FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH PILL
• Then five years ago:  6December2021  CAN ONE PILL CHECK AGING?
• On 13June2025:  DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?  
• Sure, that advancement had to do with psilocybin extending the lifespan of mice , but then, it's only a matter of time before this science improves.  To be more accurate, psilocybin is neither a mushroom or truffle, but a psychoactive chemical compound found in certain species of fungi.

• 
  Incidentally, 16 years ago, this particular posting on MAGIC MUSHROOMS was unusually popular, but this blog site, then 2.5 years old, had only reached a grand total 56,044 viewers.  This past year, several postings exceeded that number in one day.

Four months ago I began a series on The Science to Stop Aging and Reverse Aging.

• 19June2026  THE SCIENCE TO STOP AND REVERSE AGING: Part 1 Some Initial Thoughts
• 5June2026  THE SCIENCE TO STOP AND REVERSE AGING: Part 2--History of Eternal Life
• 30July2026  THE SCIENCE TO STOP AND REVERSE AGING: Part 3
• 20August2026  THE SCIENCE TO STOP AND REVERSE AGING: Part 4.....and we are in ST. JOHNS

According to Google AI:

Currently, there is no clinically proven way to completely stop or reverse human aging. However, AI and biotechnology are accelerating longevity research, shifting the focus from science fiction to practical exploration. [1, 2, 3]  Anti-aging research is shifting from simply slowing decline to actively reversing cellular age. The most significant expansion in the field involves epigenetic reprogramming, where scientists use modified proteins (Yamanaka factors) to reset the molecular controls on DNA, essentially training old and damaged cells to behave like youthful ones. [1, 2, 3] 

Life Biosciences is one of those companies pioneering epigenetic restoration.

• You can read their progress this year.
• June 9, 2026  Life Biosciences Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Trial of ER‑100 for Optic Neuropathies
• April 8, 2026  Life Biosciences Secures $80 Million Series D Financing
• January 28, 2026  Life Biosciences Announces FDA Clearance of IND Application for ER-100 in Optic Neuropathies
• Targeting the biology of aging:

• 
  What can be done?
• Starting with yourself, as I have recently been reporting, exercise and restrict certain foods.
• Prevent protein aggregation.
• Optimize your buffer conditions to stabilize the protein's native folded state.
• This is achieved by adjusting the pH, salt concentration and temperature by incorporating stabilizing additives like osmolytes (like glycerol and trehalose) and surfactants (like Tween20).

• 
  Senescent cells can be removed.
• These are also called zombie cells, which stop dividing, but refuse to dies.  They accumulate with age and release toxic, pro-inflammatory chemicals that cause tissue dysfunction.

• Senolytic drugs.
• Drugs that induce programmed death of of senescent cells without harming healthy ones.

• 
  So far, Dasatinib and Quercetin together has been shown to eliminate zombie cells.  Watch this video.
• Plant-derived compounds like fisetin quercetin (found in apples, onions and strawberries) and theaflavins (in black and oolong tea) have been shown to have a positive effect on lab animals.

• 
  Lifestyle changes.
• Again, exercise, exercise, exercise.
• Fast.  Those who can do this for one to two days triggered the natural clearance of damaged cells via autophagy, your body's natural cellular recycling system, where cells break down and reuse damaged or dysfunctional parts, clearing out cellular debris and generating energy to build new and healthy structures.
• 
  Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!
• Cellular housekeeping prevents the buildup of defective proteins tha can contribute to diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
• Understand that young blood might have rejuvenating properties.
• There are severe ethical concerns and a general lack of scientific backing.

• 
  There is Bryan Johnson's Project Blueprint.
• He sold his e-commerce company Braintree/enmo for $800 million, and made headlines integrating young blood plasma into his ultra-strict, $2 milion/year longevity blueprint.
• His primary donor was his 17-year old song, Talmage.
• Bryan himself ten donated his plasma to his 70 year-old father.
• However, stopped treatments after 6 months because he could not detect benefits.
• So does this work?  Not validated as a unified medical treatment, but.....
• 
  PayPal co-founder and billionaire venture capitalists Peter Thiel is fascinated with parabiosis, the scientific term for exchanging blood between young and old organisms.
• Believes that this will extend his life.
• Has run into ethical problems for his personal use of "blood boys."
• Says he is primarily investing millions into anti-aging startups developing young plasma therapies.
• Keeps getting linked with vampires.

I can go on and on.  But here is a New York Times article by Dana Smith questioning the efficacy of antiaging supplements.  Nicotinamide adenine dinocleotide, or NAD+, sold in your neighborhood pharmacy.

• The molecule is critical for cellular metabolism and other fundamental biological processes, and scientists and supplement companies alike have asserted that its levels drop with age. The idea that taking an NAD+ supplement could help with healthy aging took off, despite the fact that evidence showing a benefit in humans is slim. 

• 
  The theory that NAD+ declines with age emerged roughly 20 years ago, Kaeberlein said, stemming from studies in yeast, worms and mice that showed that increasing levels of the molecule could improve longevity. But scientists weren’t able to study whether a decline occurs in humans until more recently because testing blood levels of NAD+ is technically very tricky, he added.  
• However, the theory took off and “outpaced the actual data,” Kaeberlein said. “You get high-profile people writing review articles (Kendall Jenner, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Bieber), talking at conferences, nowadays going on podcasts stating what I would say are early stage models as if they are proven fact.”

The New York Times earlier this month had another related article, Eilene Zimmerman on Longevity Medicine Goes Mainstream.

• There are now hundreds of boutique longevity clinics in the U.S. to extend life and health span.  
• They have been around, actually, in limited areas, for some time, costing tens of thousands to undergo treatment outside mainstream medicine, not yet proven.
• For example, Fountain Life is a longevity company charging its highest tier $23,500/year to access genome sequencing, whole body MRI, stem cell therapies and therapeutic plasma exchange.
• 
  These opportunities are now growing.  Northwestern's Human Longevity Clinic, supported by their Potocsnak Longevity Institute, charges $5500/year, provides access to healthy aging treatments:
• VO2 max testing (how much oxygen your body consumes while exercising).
• Physical function and strength assessments.
• Complex bloodwork.
• Body composition analysis.
• Biological age tests and retinal analysis to assess risk of developing cardiac disease and cognitive dysfunction.
• 
  Mount Sinai Healthspan in New York City will shortly open a one-year program to provide evidence, informed screenings and interventions focused on extending health span.  Included is an Oura Ring for continuous biometric data monitoring.  That ring typically costs from $400 to $500.  This program also includes genetic testing and full-body MRI, with a caution that the detection of harmless tumors can lead to anxiety and unnecessary treatment.  Also will cost $5500/year.  Insurance plans do not cover this cost.
• Weill Cornell Medicine's Longevity Medicine program in New York City offers one comprehensive initial assessment for $7600, and $12,500 to include quarterly visits.
• Your local medical school will no doubt join these initiators over time.
• Their philosophy is that they want others to benefit from wellness programs without being wealthy.  
• Now, all they need to do is somehow get medical plans to pay for this program.

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THE NOTORIOUS MS ELIZABETH HOLMES: Part 2

A lot more happening in Brazil:

• On Sunday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva beat Flavio Bolsonaro for the presidency, 51.79% to 48.21%
• Flavio was favored, and the victory of Lula for his fourth presidency, was a shock to the system.
• Flavio, who is a Senator, was immune from prosecution until February when his term will expire.  So he left the country.
• His father, Jair Bolsonaro, also left the country after the loss of his 2022 presidential election. But Jair eventually returned and was given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.  He is still serving this sentence, but currently at home because of "health" issues.
• Thus, it's no surprise that Flavio escaped, probably to the USA.  This story is just developing.

• 
  The USA, so far, has been relatively peaceful about the fate of former presidents.  South Korea, for example, has tried and judged guilty 4 out the past 6 presidents.  Going back to Syngman Rhee in 1948, becoming president there has been an adventurous challenge.

Today is a holiday in Israel for their Knesset elections.  Also, public transport is free.  Polls are closing as I type this sentence.  When will we know if Benjamin Netanyahu continues as prime minister?

• Certainly not over the next 24 hours.
• Israelis vote for parties and not candidates.  So who eventually become Knesset members?  Read this.
• No party will win anywhere close to 61 seats, the number to gain a majority in this unicameral legislative body.

• 
  So coalitions will form.
• If no majority can be reached over the next few months, the process begins again with new Knesset elections.
• In the meantime, Netanyahu's government would remain as a caretaker, but no major policy changes can be made.
• So how long will Netanyahu remain as prime minister?  As short as a few days to form a coalition to replace him.  Or for a long time to come.

The life of Elizabeth Holmes began with her life and the formation of Theranos.   Part 2 goes into the unraveling of Theranos, her new family and various films and documentaries that were produced.

• Clearly, she and her company misrepresented the truth, or outright lied.  Watch this video about her secrets.
• At its height in 2015, Theranos had more than 800 employees.

• 
  Early in 2017, she met William "Billy" Evans, who was then 25.  
• She was 34.
• Never actually got married.
• Gave birth to son William in in 2021 and daughter Invicta in 2023.

• Company began dissolving in 2018.
• Also that year, Holmes and Sunny Balwani were indicted of fraud and conspiracy.

• Trial date set for 2021, but the Covid Pandemic delayed the prosecution.
• In 2022, the jury found Holmes guilty on four counts related to defrauding investors.
• Holmes was sentenced to 11.25 years in federal prison, and ordered her and Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their fraud.

• 
  A little more than a month before she was to report to jail, she opened their home to Nathan Fielder for the documentary, You Can See Everything.  Three years later in October of 2026, the production was released.
• 
  She was incarcerated at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, Texas in November 2022, and report to prison on 20May2023.
• She began a campaign for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in December 2025.
• She was approved to transfer to a halfway house in Austin, Texas on 23August2027.

I identify with Elizabeth Holmes in more than just our being students in the chemical department at Stanford.

• We both have magnificent obsessions.
• Hers is a rather reasonable vision to feature one drop of blood to revolution healthcare.
• Mine are too ahead of the times and rather grandiose.
• In the 70's I worked at the NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  Here is a recent posting on my time there.  Helped Carl Sagan gain first funding for SETI.

• 
  Also in the mid 70's I worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion.  Commercial fusion was 50 years in the future then.  Today, I think still 50 years away, although the private sector's entrance into the effort could shorten that period.

• 
  A few years later in 1980, while working in the U.S. Senate I drafted the original hydrogen bill that became law.  I think the Hydrogen Society is also 50 years in the future, although Google AI does not agree with me:

The global transition toward a "hydrogen society" is actively unfolding today rather than standing 50 years away, driven by national decarbonization goals targeting 2050. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

• 
  I even dabbled into Global Peace for Humaniy.  Read my Huffington Post article on The 10% Simple Solution to Peace.
• From as back as 1990 to recently, I had a dream about the Blue Revolution, and led an international quest to develop the program.

• 
  2012:  My talk at the San Francisco Seasteading Conference.
• 2019:  Seasteading podcast.
• 2021:  TEDx talk--The Time for the Blue Revolution is Now.
• In particular, I was searching for $150 million to build an ocean platform to develop this system.
• As governments and companies don't provide funds for this type of effort, I failed at find that enlightened billionaire.

• 
  I was impressed at her ability to gain so much funding.
• I did secure $25 million from the U.S. and Japanese governments to build an open-cycle OTEC facility at the Natural Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Big Island
• Another $25 million to test the conversion of bagasse, (sugar cane fiber) into methanol.
• As a university person, we transition a technology into the future, and don't need to commercialize anything.  
• 
  What was lacking in this paradigm was a transition organization to transfer university developments into the marketplace.  I thus had a hand in creating the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research to handle this process.

• 
  If the Blue Revolution had succeeded, that would have placed me in the arena of Elizabeth Holmes.  Maybe I should feel fortunate about failing.  I am not in jail.

To write this two-part posting, I first watched three productions.

• 
  In May 2018, author John Carreyrou released the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, describing the life of Holmes and the inner workings of Theranos.^[154]   The film was ready to go with Jennifer Lawrence as the lead actress.  However, she dropped out because she thought Amanda Seyfried's Emmy-winning performance was brilliant and didn't need to be redone.

• 
  That was for background, I first began to watch The Dropout, which had premiered on Hulu on 3March2022.  

• 
  Eight episodes.  
• Rotten Tomatoes scores of 90/83.
• Seyfried did such good acting that I began to hate her, the actress.
• Sort of reminds me of Peter Lorre as the serial killer of young children.
• The person, Elizabeth Holmes, seemed "nicer" as a human being.

• 
  In March 18, 2019, HBO premiered the documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a two-hour documentary film first shown at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2019. It portrays the claims and promises made by Holmes in the last years of Theranos and how ultimately the company was brought down by the weight of many falsehoods. The documentary ends in 2018, with Holmes and Balwani indicted for multiple crimes.  Rotten Tomatoes scores of 78/74.

• 
  On 16October22026, the film You Can See Everything was released.  Long, 2 hours and 54 minutes.
• Rotten Tomatoes, 98/96.
• Thirty-four days before she's sent to prison, Elizabeth Holmes invited a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.
• So in came Nathan Fielder, co-producer with Lance Oppenheim.
• The first half was okay, featuring Holmes.

• 
  After she left for prison, the second half focused on Billy Evans (Holmes' partner who is with the two children) and Amanda Seyfried.  According to Fielder:  he recruited Seyfried because he needed an actor to reenact real-life interactions with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, that Fielder and the crew could not legally or practically capture on camera.
• I found the second half to be be confusing, plus utterly boring.  I guess I'm one of the few exceptions.  Or perhaps, I got tired of the subject matter.  Only after reading the Wikipedia version of this film did I better understand what was happening.

I close with the latest on Typhoon In-Fa.  Yesterday, was up to 130 MPH and headed for Japan.  Today, weakened to 120, then went back up to 130 MPH.  The good news for Japan:  not headed there, nor Okinawa, anymore.  The projection now is that there will be a sudden shift in two days towards the ocean space between Taiwan and the Philippines.  However, looks like there will be a weakening.  Still too early to see what will actually happen.

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GLOBAL DEMOCRACY GAINS

There have been three stunning elections in the world this year, all won by pro-Democratic candidates:

• In April, then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a lopsided defeat, ending his radically regressive 16-year reign, despite the White House’s intervention on his behalf.

• 
  Incredibly enough, yesterday, the U.S. White House encouraged Orban to consider running for UN secretary-general, indicating that he will also be supported by Russian and China.
• New Prime Minister Péter Magyar, faced with significant challenges, seems to be moving ahead to uproot years and illiberalism and corruption to rebuild a Hungarian democracy.

• Then yesterday, the 14-year rein of Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic crashed, opposed by a progressive student movement.

• Also yesterday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a surprising fourth term, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, who four years ago attempted a Trump-type coup that failed and sent him to prison.

In Israel, democracy is not a stake, but they will have legislative elections for the Knesset tomorrow.

• First national voting since the Hamas-led attacks on 7October2023.
• Winners get four years to serve.
• Current Knesset has 120 seats and 13 parties.  They have a unicameral form of legislature, and it makes the laws and selects president and prime minister.

• 
  You probably did not know that the current president is Isaac Herzog.  That is because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wields most of the power.
• Any party clearing an electoral threshold of 3.25% enters the Knesset.
• Coalitions determine who becomes prime minister and president.
• 
  Who is favored to become PM?
• Netanyahu is leader of the Likud party and has been endorsed by Trump.  Male dominated.

• 
  His challenger is former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot of the centrist Yashar party.  Half of his followers are female.
•  Netanyahu is 77, while Eisenkot is 66.
• A quote:  "Eisenkot is not left, he's not right. He's straight and honest. He's the kind of leader who will take care of us, the people of Israel, and not himself or his corrupt family."

• 
  Another quote:  The election is about more than just political survival for Netanyahu — it’s also about his personal freedom. Netanyahu is seeking re-election while also facing long-running criminal cases domestically on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, allegations he has dismissed as a politically motivated witch-hunt.

However, globally, over the past few years, here is what Google AI says:

The state of global democracy is largely down (experiencing ongoing decline or stagnation), though major indices offer slightly different nuances depending on the metrics used. [1, 2, 3]

Key Findings from Major Reports (2025–2026)

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA):
• According to the Global State of Democracy Report, 2025 marked the 11th consecutive year in which more countries experienced democratic decline than improvement.
• 57% of assessed countries (98 nations) declined in at least one key factor, while 32% (55 nations) improved. Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression, and Judicial Independence hit multi-decade lows.[1, 2, 3]
Freedom House:
• In its annual Freedom in the World Report, global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025, with conditions worsening across 54 countries due to wars, coups, and institutional erosion (though 35 countries showed improvements). [1]
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU):
• The EIU Democracy Index offered a slightly more stabilizing view, indicating a plateau or end to the sharp global recession, as 75% to 85% of countries either maintained or improved their scores. However, researchers note that this plateau masks underlying volatility, and only a small fraction of the world’s population (about 6.6%) lives in full democracies. [1, 2, 3]

Read the details:  The Global State of Democracy 2026:  Democracy in an Age of Conflict.

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